"Unfortunately so much commentary is self-serving or sensationalist. Pete Wargent shines through with his clear, sober & dispassionate analysis of the housing market, which is so valuable. Pete drills into the facts & unlocks the details that others gloss over in their rush to get a headline. On housing Pete is a must read, must follow - he is one of the finest property analysts in Australia" - Stephen Koukoulas, MD of Market Economics, former Senior Economics Adviser to Prime Minister Gillard.

"Pete Wargent is one of Australia's brightest financial minds - a must-follow for articulate, accurate & in-depth analysis." - David Scutt, Business Insider, leading Australian market analyst.

"I've been investing for over 40 years & read nearly every investment book ever written yet I still learned new concepts in his books. Pete Wargent is one of Australia's finest young financial commentators." - Michael Yardney, Australia's leading property expert, Amazon #1 best-selling author.

"The most knowledgeable person on Aussie real estate markets - Pete's work is great, loads of good data and charts, the most comprehensive analyst I follow in Australia. If you follow Australia, follow Pete Wargent" - Jonathan Tepper, Variant Perception, Global Macroeconomic Research, and author of the New York Times bestsellers 'End Game' and 'Code Red'.

"The level of detail in Pete's work is superlative across all of Australia's housing markets" - Grant Williams, co-founder RealVision, author of Things That Make You Go Hmmm...one of the world's most popular & widely-read financial publications.

Tuesday, 13 September 2016

Mining cliff more than three-quarters done

Cliff has ended

Interesting speech from Christopher Kent of the Reserve Bank of Australia today, in which he confirmed that the drop in mining investment since 2012 is now more than three-quarters done (which ties in with what we have already seen in the ABS engineering construction figures).

The drag on growth from mining investment is now waning, which is positive news for the economy.

Despite the end of the mining investment boom, Australia's GDP growth has comfortably outperformed other advanced countries. And despite many claims to the contrary, GDP per capita has also increased, so growth has not only been driven by population growth.

GDP is forecast to continue expanding, with growth expected to be about 3 to 4 per cent through December 2018.

The unemployment rate has to date done a bit better through the aftermath of the boom than had been expected, with forecasts suggesting a steady decline over the next few years.

The RBA anticipates that the terms of trade index will remain broadly unchanged from here on, encouraged by the rebound in commodity prices in 2016.

Anyway, those were a few of the interesting points, but the full speech is here.